On Saturday the 15th November, Dr. Francisco Anguita, lecturer in Geology in the Complutense University of Madrid, gave a lecture entitled “From the Big Bang to the ecological issue: the Cosmos approach to environmental matters”, which took place in the framework of the course on Climantica in the subject of “Science for the Contemporary World” from the point of view of sustainability and IT.

The content of this lecture has been included in three documentaries. The first one, which is already available on Climántica TV, is an introduction that summarizes all the issues dealt with in the seminar.

He argued that the cosmos could be taken as a starting point to approach the subject of “Science of the Contemporary World” as a focal point to tackle environmental issues such as climate change. In this sense, he follows this outline for teaching purposes:

Universe --> Galaxies --> Stars + Planets --> Earth --> Homo sapiens

As regards the Homo Sapiens’ capacity to change the environment, he proposed an opposite movement but he warned about the risk to have an anthropocentric vision of the approach:

Homo sapiens --> Earth (climate change caused by man)

Following the first outline, he started his argument from the Big Bang in order to explain the formation of planets. In this sense, he talked about the formation of atmospheres and oceanic hydrospheres in the Super-Earth, and he discussed whether water is necessary for life and whether a technological society can be developed in an oceanic Super-Earth planet. According to him, this question is the key issue in Astrobiology, but he recognised the controversy arisen by this area of science, since it neither proves nor gives evidence of the theory it suggests.

Taking into account the emergence of life on Earth in its origins, based on the formation of lines rich in 12C and poor in 13C –linked to organic environments- on the oldest rocks on Earth -4 109 years old- formed in Greenland’s oceanic context, he argued that life could appear when the Earth was under a formation process. He also talked about the evidence of the fact that at this stage plate tectonics would already take place, linking this fact to the impact on life evolution, since it would make the change of ecological niche and habitats easier.Regarding this fact, he pointed out that the same could happen with the neighbour planets, Venus and Mars. In this sense, he mentioned the existence of morphological traces in Mars that implied the presence of water. In addition, he said that in Venus the proportion of deuterium in the atmosphere presumably suggests the presence of water, so that there could have been life on both planets 4 000 million years ago. As far as plate tectonics is concerned, he observed that the traces found on the surface aimed at the model in Mars instead of in Venus. He also emphasized the relevance that water has on Jupiter’s satellite, the so-called Europe, since it has a 100-quilometer deep ice sheet, that is, the solar system’s largest water reserve. If volcanoes were placed on this sheet, heat could melt ice, so that life could exist here thanks to thermal energy. Therefore, he came to the conclusion that the satellite, which has already been visited once, is worth a second visit.

Following this argument, Dr. Anguita considered a planetary approach to tackle the environmental issue since, according to him, the two neighbour planets have undergone large climatic changes when life started on Earth. In this sense, he argued that it was extremely difficult to assume that a climatic stability on Earth that allows life sustainability could be maintained. Therefore, he emphasized the relevance that the use of fossil fuels could have on that stability.

In short, Mr. Anguita’s lecture was a brilliant contribution to understand the complexity, difficulty, extent and controversy posed by the research on the Cosmos and the formation of Earth from the Big Bang, which became very useful for teachers’ daily work. This approach does not only become more significant to understand the research on the Cosmos, but it provides with a trans-disciplinary added value that makes environmental awareness possible.